In another twist to a contentious issue in Dearborn's Muslim community over whether McDonald's sold non-halal meat that was advertised as halal, the judge overseeing the controversial settlement with the restaurant has ordered a Dearborn attorney to remove all references to the matter from a Facebook page he created.

Majed Moughni's page has become a quasi news site for the Dearborn community, drawing more than 20,000 views per week.

The judge barred Moughni from discussing the settlement reached last month with anyone who might be affected and ordered him to replace his posts, which have been critical, with copies of the settlement.

Moughni also was ordered to forward the names and contact information of anyone who commented on the case or "Liked" a post on it.

Thursday's order by Wayne County Circuit Judge Kathleen Macdonald has sparked concern among some Dearborn residents and free-speech advocates who say it clamped down on a popular site many use for news and to express their views. They expressed concern that McDonald's and the plaintiff's attorneys are trying to stop people from criticizing the settlement.

"That is a violation of free speech," said Hanadi Kesserouani, 23, of Dearborn, who reads the Facebook page and opposes the settlement.

Since the order, traffic on the Dearborn Area Community Members' Facebook page has dwindled because any new post and comment must be removed so that the settlement remains front and center.

"The judge's order is pretty clearly overbroad on its face and unconstitutional," said Nate Cordozo, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco that deals with online issues.

An assistant to the judge said she couldn't comment because the case is ongoing. Spokespeople for McDonald's did not return calls.

But attorneys who settled the class-action with McDonald's and had asked the judge to clamp down on the site said the order was necessary to prevent false and misleading statements from reaching the public.

Judge Macdonald's order stemmed from a $700,000 settlement between McDonald's and attorneys over claims that the restaurant was selling non-halal McChicken sandwiches and McNuggets thought to be halal -- the Islamic equivalent of kosher -- at a restaurant in the eastern part of Dearborn.

The tentative settlement calls for about $275,000 to go to the Huda Clinic, a Muslim health center in Detroit; $150,000 for the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, and $25,000 to go to a Dearborn Heights man who was the lead plaintiff. The remainder mostly would go to attorney fees.

Critics said the money should have gone to observant Muslims who mistakenly ate non-halal sandwiches, an act that violates their religion.

Moughni criticized the settlement on his Facebook page, calling it a backroom deal. And he asked people to hit the "Like" button and comment if they agreed with him.

He drew about 1,300 supporters on the site and then filed a legal complaint Jan. 25.

A few days later, attorneys who settled the case with McDonald's filed a motion asking the judge to stop Moughni from making what they considered to be false and defamatory statements about the settlement. The motion by attorney Kassem Dakhlallah alleged that Moughni "poisoned the mix of information" for people potentially affected by the settlement.

On Thursday, Judge Macdonald dismissed Moughni's complaint and sided with Dakhlallah, saying that Moughni had engaged in "deliberative and abusive conduct." Her order specified that the copies of the settlements must be "prominently placed on the Facebook page wall," giving him until noon the next day to comply.

The next day, Dakhlallah filed another motion against Moughni, accusing him of failing to properly comply with the judge's order, saying "Moughni caused multiple posts to be posted ahead of the relevant documents that the court ordered Mr. Moughni to post prominently on the Facebook Page."

Moughni has been unable to post anything new on the site or allow other comments, which means the site has effectively been dead since he complied with the order Feb. 8. Started three years ago, the site used to draw active discussion on a range of issues. On Tuesday, copies of the settlement were the top posts. Nothing new appeared to have been added since Friday.

Judge Macdonald's order also said that Moughni "shall cease and desist any and all communication with Class Members, or those who may be Class Members, about this case and the settlement."

Because of the order, Moughni could not comment to the Free Press. He has previously called the settlement a "slap in the face of the community."

An attorney for McDonald's, Thomas McNeill, also declined to comment.

Mike Jaafar, a colleague of Dakhlallah, said "there is no First Amendment right to deceive and mislead people about their rights under a class action settlement."

Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University, agrees that there is no First Amendment issue, saying there is a "narrowness to the order."

But Cardozo, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the order went too far. He said that while judges have the right to prevent attorneys from making materially false statements, the Supreme Court has said such restrictions must be "carefully drawn to limit restrictions on free speech."

Any order "should be carefully drawn in order to limit restrictions on free speech as little as possible. ... This order looks like it was drawn to limit free speech as much as possible."